I have a tendency to eat when bored, worried, etc. If I get the urge to eat when I'm not really hungry, I sometimes:

1. Brush my teeth. Brushing one's teeth is associated with the end eating, plus I generally no longer feel like eating with a minty fresh mouth.

2. Walk up and down the stairs 5 times. I don't know if it's the distraction, the exercise, or thinking about how my legs ache and how few calories that effort burned, but this usually works for me.

Other "tricks":

3. Fill out your daily food log religiously. I often back off from eating something I don't really need because I don't want to have to see it in my food log and see the calorie count jump.

4. Eat more soups. In a study, two groups were allowed to each as much as they wanted. One group was fed a stew/casserole with water to drink on the side. The other group got the same stew/casserole with water added to it to make it into a soup. The soup group got filled up with less food.

5. I'm a big late-night snacker. I've made the kitchen off limits to me after 8 pm. At 7:30 pm, I'll have some fruit with cheese or nuts, and then I don't go into the kitchen until the following morning. (And, no, I haven't started stashing food in other rooms!)

6. Don't eat in front of the tv or at the computer. When I'm focused on a screen, I eat mindlesslessly and then realize I've finished my meal and haven't really enjoyed it - and usually don't feel full. Unplug and really enjoy your food.

7. I eat too fast, so I'm trying to put my spoon or fork down between bites, or chew a bite 20 times. This is another way to taste and better enjoy your food.